When I saw DB's question I thought it might be this one, but in fact his question was most important _Studio_ Component. I post this to find out what single thing can make you hate a keyboard or love a keyboard, either way. No modules allowed.

Whenever I'm shopping I can never quite decide whether it's the keys or the wheels/left hand control that matters most.
Best example is the original Nord: the keys absolutely sucked, with a horrible rock-hard bottom and no aftertouch. But the left hand section on that thing - damn. What an awesome feeling to have your hand with your pointer finger in the bender stick and still be able to use your other three fingers to switch between slots and octaves...

I guess for me, both of these have to have strengths, or else I won't buy it.

Others may think the sound is most important.. but for me it has to play well. I guess maybe I'm too touchy-feely.


Steve

Yep - that'd be me. The sound is everything - I can pretty much forgive almost anything else.

If the keys or controllers aren't to my liking, MIDI can almost always handle that. Sometimes I even get used to it...case in point - the K2000. Awesome synth - awful keybed. I don't care - I got over it, and don't mind playing almost anything (not a piano part, though...) on it. Why? Because it is an awesome sounding synth, and it inspires me musically - the rest is just details, mostly.

I find the same to be conversely true as well - if a synth just sonically lays there, I won't buy it no matter what it does, spec-wise.

Basically, as a rule there are five things that I consider when I'm thinking about purchasing a keyboard. They are:

1) the sound
2) the sound
3) the sound
4) the feel of the keybed
5) the sound

I find that when I adhere to this formula, I never go wrong.

Your mileage may vary...

dB

Yeah, I never understood why they put such an horrible keyboard in that wonderful synth. I had my K2000 for about two months before swapping it for the rack version.

marino

By reading the post by the starter post, I'm
guessing this is for the studio keyboard.



While I agree the sound is an important component, but the overall quality such as
the software bugs; ultilities are also one of
the most important factors. Let's said the Yammy EX-5: Great sounds with great technology, great features; nice keyboard actions; Lot of controllers etc.. Every one
of its features is cool on my list Except one
major draw back that pull me away from it: the slow Scuzzy loading time. This factor is
very important as your studio time is very
precious and expensive. Any down time in the
studio can cost your money; energy and more
critical: Your clientale.

This is one area that Yammy need to improve in order to stay competitive with Korg and Roland.(Triton & Xv-5080): The Scuzzy - This
defect is also existed in their A-series
sampler line.